The Hindu : Sport : Federer too good for Soderling yet again

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Federer too good for Soderling yet again

Nirmal Shekar

The Swiss genius is just three match victories away from leaving Sampras behind

— PHOTO: AP

On Cruise Control: Roger Federer sped past Robin Soderling and entered the quarterfinals on Monday.

London: Roger Federer’s mission in life is to do what nobody has done before.

“Nobody can beat me 11 times in a row. I promise,” Robin Soderling had said, turning to Federer, after receiving the runner-up trophy at the French Open. Little did he know that in Federer’s case there are simply no limits.

The Swiss genius habitually meanders beyond normal bounds and is now only three match victories away from leaving the last of his peers — Pete Sampras — behind.

On a warm Monday in the 123rd Wimbledon championships, the five-time champion turned conflict into a concert as he sped past Soderling 6-4,7-6(5), 7-6(5) and into the quarterfinals.

Twenty years ago, after beating Jimmy Connors at the Masters event, the late Vitas Gerulaitis had famously remarked: “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.”

Soderling perhaps said what he did a little too soon, although he might not have expected to run into the Swiss alpinist less than three weeks after losing to him in straight sets in the French final.

“There is nowhere to go when you play Roger,” Andre Agassi had said a few years ago. Well, there is only one place to go — back home, unless a beaten opponent wanted to stay on and witness the beautiful cruelty Federer inflicted on him to a bunch of others.

Like the 19th century French poet, Charles Baudelaire, if you are inclined to seek and find “beauty” and “the eternal” in the transient and the fleeting, sitting courtside during a Federer match is highly recommended.

Simply beautiful

World domination is a nasty business, especially in individual sports — it is all blood and sweat and brutality. You’d know all about it if you had been watching tennis in the time of Jimmy Connors. But Federer makes it look beautiful.

He kills opponents without so much as a cut or a bruise. They don’t even realise that they are dying. Then there are gone. Bring on the next.

“Defeat has a dignity which noisy victory does not deserve,” wrote the Argentine poet Jose Luis Borges. The likes of Soderling might tend to agree.

In losing to Federer, you might feel you are in a trace. Hours later, opponents might be asking themselves: did that really happen?

Yes, it did happen to Soderling on Monday. It probably will happen again on Wednesday and Friday and then on Sunday, too, to three more men. Goodbye Pete.

Well, if it was only that easy! But then, Federer does make it look as simple as that. If we tend to get ahead of ourselves and turn a capricious, unpredictable business into something that is utterly predictable, then the mistake is his. Not ours.

“He is on cruise control,” John McEnroe, perhaps for the first time holding an umbrella to shield himself from the hot sun on the centre court at Wimbledon, had said of Federer before the match.

McEnroe, of course, was talking about Federer’s progress to the fourth round but it was very much true of today’s match too. The Swiss master was a model of serenity.

“It was a dangerous match. I am happy to be through,” said Federer.

“Today it was pretty much a serving contest.”

In fact, it was more than just a serving contest. There were not too many long rallies but Soderling’s forehand was quite threatening and Federer did remarkably well in the longer points contested from the baseline.

Special ability

The five-time champion has won so many matches on this court that he seems to know exactly what to do and when. Just when we come to believe it is a close set, there comes that one special shot that does exactly what it is meant to do — tilt the scales.

Soderling, a touch nervous in the ninth game, handed a break to Federer with a pair of forehand errors and a double fault and the Swiss maestro served it out with an ace, one of 23 he hit in the match.

The next two sets were close but Federer was masterly in both the tiebreaks.

He hit a lovely forehand winner on the 10th point of the first before the Swede made a forehand error to go two sets down.

In the third set, Federer fought off two breakpoints to hold to 5-4 and again came up with two special forehands in the tiebreak before a double fault from Soderling gave the great man the chance to close out the match with a service winner.

THE RESULTS

Prefix denotes seeding

The results: Men’s singles: Fourth round: 24-Tommy Haas (Ger) bt 29-Igor Andreev (Rus) 7-6(8), 6-4, 6-4; 2-Roger Federer (Sui) bt 13-Robin Soderling (Swe) 6-4, 7-6(5), 7-6(5); 4-Novak Djokovic (Srb) bt Dudi Sela (Isr) 6-2, 6-4, 6-1.

Women’s singles: Fourth round: 4-Elena Dementieva (Rus) bt Elena Vesnina (Rus) 6-1, 6-3; 11-Agniezska Radwanska (Pol) bt Melanie Oudin (USA) 6-4, 7-5; 3-Venus Williams (USA) bt 13-Ana Ivanovic (Srb) 6-1, 0-1 (retd).; 2-Serena Williams (USA) bt Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) 6-3, 6-1; 8-Victoria Azarenka (Blr) bt 10-Nadia Petrova (Rus) 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3; Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt 26-Virginie Razzano (Fra) 6-2, 7-6(1); Sabine Lisicki (Ger) bt 9-Caroline Wozniacki (Den) 6-4, 6-4.

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